Pattern device for circular knitting machines



PATTERN DEVICE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb. 21, 1967 Aug. 19, 1969 J. MARTINETZ ETAL 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 1

mvmroxs; IO H/w/v MA MIA/2 1 I E N E R K Pwn a. M M 3 T H M. T D H Y B g- 1969 J. MARTINETZ ETAL PATTERN DEVICE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb. 21. 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

[Wm/r035 JOH A/V/V MARTWETZ BY HORST PAEPRE THEIR A-TTORMEY.

Aug. 19,1969 J. MARTINETZ ETAL 5 PATTERN DEVICE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb 21, 1967 s Sheets-Sheet s twin/T035: J 0 HAM/V MARTW Z,

y HORST PAEPKE Twain ATTORNEY United States Patent US. CI. 66-50 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pattern device for a circular knitting machine wherein needle-controlling plates, which have pattern feet, are directly controlled, in order to make a predetermined pattern selection, by armatures of electromagnets. The needle-controlling plates are supported for longitudinal shifting movement by a rotary needle-carrier means which is formed with longitudinal grooves in which the controlling plates are situated, and the pattern feet of the plates are respectively moved by the rotary needle bed along predetermined paths. The armatures of the several electromagnets terminate in free ends which are inclined and situated in the paths of movement of the pattern feet to engage the latter for shifting the control plates with respect to the bed to locations where these pattern plates will not participate in the knitting operations.

With this arrangement, while the pattern feet engaging arms of the armatures are arranged substantially along a straight line which is parallel to the axis of the rotary needle bed, the other arms of the armatures, which are acted upon by the electromagnets, are offset with respect to each other perpendicularly with respect to the axis o the needle bed so that a compact arrangement of the elec tromagnets can be achieved.

The present invention relates to circular knitting machines.

More particularly, the present invention relates to pattern devices of circular knitting machines.

The present invention relates especially to that type of pattern device which is adaptedv to coact with a rotary needle carrier of a circular knitting machine whereselection of needles is carried out by electromagnetically actuated adjusting elements which coact with control plates supported by the needle bed for shifting movement.

There are already known different types of pattern devices for difierent types of textile and knitting machines where the pattern mechanism undergoes an electromagnetic actuation or selection. Thus, there are known deviceswhere the control Plates which are situated closely beside each other are directly pulled by the armature of an electromagnet (German patent 438,387). Devices of this type have the great disadvantages of situating those control plates which are not to be selected closely beside those which are to be selected at least within the stray region of the electromagnet which is excited in order to select a predetermined plate, and thus there is the danger that these adjoining plates are fully or partially moved, resulting thus in a faulty pattern in the knitting or in damaging of the control plates.

Moreover, it has already been proposed, with several pattern devices where electromagnets act on armatures, to actuate the pattern plates by way of intermediate levers (German Patents 669,565, 630,794, and 581,892). These devices require very costly adjusting structures and have already, for economic reasons, become unacceptable in practice and are not used.

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With a further group of electromagnetically actuated pattern devices there are in engagement with pattern wheels electromagnetically selected shiftable control elements which are shifted in a relatively complex manner by way of electromagnetically actuated levers and intermediate plates which are radially arranged. These constructions have the disadvantage of not only requiring a relatively complex structure for the pattern wheels and the control plates which are movable therein, but also of requiring magnetizable spring rods which have material requirements which are so conflicting as to be mutually exclusive. Thus, these spring rods on the one hand must have a springy elasticity and on the other hand they must be magnetizable with as little remanence as possible. Moreover, these spring rods are guided by control cams which engage the rods so as to subject them also to mechanical stresses necessitating hardening of the rods in the region in which they are guided. A further disadvantage of this construction resides in the fact that every needle of the needle-carrier must be provided with a springy electromagnetic, swingable iron rod of this type, and these rods in a device which does not have a pattern wheel, must be arranged as close to each other as the needles and moved past a stationary electromagnet, so that in order to actuate the magnet so as to influence one of these springy rods there is available, for example, less than two milliseconds. This fact, namely that the pattern device requires only a single electromagnct for the knitting system, cannot be considered as an advantage since this electromagnet must be energized and de-energized very rapidly and thus can provide only a relatively small degree of control. With this construction it is necessary to actuate only armatures of very small mass, and in order to bring about the required needle selection special cams and different types of intermediate switching elements are required, all of which makes the pattern device very expensive, since a single magnet with the capability of such rapid energizing and de-energizing also has correspondingly high requirements with respect to the construction and control of the flow of current in the programming circuit which controls the electromagnet.

It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a pattern device which will avoid all of the above drawbacks.

Thus, it is an object of the invention to provide a pattern device with a simple, inexpensive construction capable of having its components very compactly arranged without sacrificing any precision in the controls and at the same time enabling the construction to have relatively large tolerances so that a high degree of precision is not required for the manufacture of the pattern device of the invention.

In accordance with the invention, the armature of. an electromagnetic means directly acts as an adjusting element and is provided with an inclined surface situated in the path of movement of a pattern foot of a needle controlling plate so that when the latter pattern foot is engaged by the inclined end of the armature, a control foot of the plate is displaced to a location where it will not engage the knitting-controlling cams or the like and thus will not participate in the knitting operations. I

This pattern device of the invention has the advantage of not requiring any changes to be made in the control cams or in the needle-carrying structure which may be made precisely the same as already known in Jacquard pattern devices with pin rollers.

Thus, it is a further object of the invention to provide a construction which does not require any changes to be made in the knitting control structure, such as the knitting cams, or the needle-carrying structure.

Intermediate switching elements with special guide paths for the latter elements, as is required in known electromagnetic pattern devices, are completely eliminated with the structure of the invention, and the armature of the electromagnet acts directly as an adjusting element.

The objects of the present invention also include the provision of an adjusting element which will not act as a hammer which must be actuated in precise synchronism with the movement of the plate which is to be adjusted and which must have impact contact with this plate. Instead, the adjusting element of the invention has an inclined surface along which a pattern foot of a control plate rides. Thus, the adjusting device of the invention forms in itself a control cam for the plate.

According to a preferred structure of the invention the adjusting elements are in the form of double-armed swing levers with the two arms of each lever being at least approximately of the same mass so that each swing lever is supported for turning movement at its center of gravity. One of the arms of each swing lever terminates in the inclined camming end which coacts with a pattern foot of a needle-controlling plate, while the other arm is an armature which coacts with a pair of electromagnets respectively situated at opposite sides of this other arm, one of these electromagnets acting as an advancing magnet to advance the inclined end of the lever to a position where it will engage the pattern foot of a plate which is to be actuated by the lever, while the other of the electromagnets acts as a retracting magnet to displace the swing lever to a position where its inclined end will not engage the pattern foot. Because of this construction and arrangement of the swing levers, they can be controlled with extremely small magnetic forces, and the electromagnet can be made of a small size and can have an extremely simple and inexpensive construction. The adjusting levers are supported in such a way that their inclined ends are swingable in the same general direction as the direction of longitudinal shifting movement of the needles and control plates. In the event that a control plate is not to be turned, then the adjusting element is turned through a small adjusting angle beyond the path of movement of the pattern foot of the control plate into a free region between the paths of the pattern feet, so that these pattern feet remain uninfluenced and move past the camming surfaces of the swing levers.

Thus, with the structure of the invention each adjusting element is, in an advantageous manner, swung into the path of movement of the pattern foot, of the plate which is to be actuated, before it engages this plate. In this way, it is possible to offset the pattern feet of successive control plates in the direction of longitudinal shifting of the needles. Of course, this construction requires for each of the different pattern foot positions a special electromagnetic control element. However, a relatively large space between the pattern feet which are to be controlled by one control element is achieved, and thus the rapidity with which the control element must be actuated is diminished, and this latter factor is of very great importance for the reliability of the operation of the pattern device of the invention, The adjusting elements can be set to predetermined positions in the time period between the movement of a pair of pattern feet of plates which are to be controlled by a given adjusting element, so that in accordance with the magnitude of this time period, relatively large control tolerances in the actuating elements can be provided, so as to provide also a relatively great tolerance and a simple construction for the programming controls.

The programming device with which the excitation of the electromagnets for the individual control elements is controlled does not form part of the present invention. The switching program which will provide the desired pattern can be arranged on different types of program carriers, such as punched tapes, film strips, magnetic tapes, and the like.

The number of adjusting elements for a given knitting system need not in any case correspond to the number of needles required for a repeating pattern of a given width. It is instead possible to arrange the pattern plates for the needles of a given width of repeating .patterns in several groups of stacks which follow upon one another and which are preferably identical, so that, for example, where a repeating pattern has a width requiring 36 needles for the knitting system, groups of six pattern foot positions following one after the other can be provided. Thus, there is required for each knitting system only six individual adjusting elements and each adjusting element must at a miximum control only every sixth needle of the needles which are sequentially moved past the control elements.

With a pattern device constructed according to the present invention, it is possible to control, according to a predetermined pattern, needles of a cylinder or needles of a dial. In the case of a knitting system which has a needle cylinder the swing levers which act as the adjusting elements can be arranged one above the other while with a knitting system having a dial for the needles, the swing levers of the invention can be arranged one behind the other, so that the camming or control surface of each adjusting element is positioned for proper coaction with a control plate which has a predetermined position for its pattern foot in the needle bed. Thus, the camming surfaces for the pattern feet of the individual control elements are arranged in a line parallel to the needle bed in the region of the control station.

Those arms of the swing levers which act as armatures and which are connected with adjoining adjusting elements and the electromagnets which coact therewith can be laterally offset with respect to each other, so that the distance between a pair of control elements can be maintained smaller than the space required for the control magnets themselves. Thus, the pair of electromagnets which coact with one control element can be longitudinally displaced with respect to each other along the armature controlled by these electromagnets and which acts as a lever arm. In this way it is possible to arrange the electromagnets for the control elements at a given knitting position very close to each other in an exceedingly compact, stacked assembly, so that the pattern device of the invention can be situated in an extremely small space.

Thus, the present invention relates to a pattern device which in its reliability of operation is far superior to all previously known electromagnetically actuated pattern devices. The structure of the invention is relatively inexpensive. Above all, simply constructed adjusting elements can be used, and the device is capable of being mounted on existing machines without any difliculty, these machines having been initially designed for mechanically actuated pattern devices. The likelihood of faulty operation of the pattern device of the invention is extremely small. All of the elements can be constructed to operate with practically no maintenance and without the presence of any attendants, and the device can be encapsulated in a dust-tight manner at the small-linearly-shaped control station.

Further features of the invention are described below in connection with the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic, side view of a pattern device of the invention shown together with a fragmentarily illustrated needle cylinder, which is shown partly in section;

FIG. 2 shows the device of FIG. 1, as seen in the direction of the arrow II of FIG. 1, with the needle cylinder partially developed; and

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the pattern device of the invention, as seen in the direction of the arrow III of FIG. 1.

The drawings show the pattern device of the invention in a highly schematic manner. This pattern device of the invention brings about the pattern selection of the cylinder needles of a knitting system of a circular knitting machine. The device has six swing levers 1-6, which form the adjusting elements of the device, and which are respectively supported for turning movement by hearing pins 7 in a housing 8 made up of a plurality of individual plates. Each of the swing levers 1-6 has an adjusting arm lat-6a, which, as may be seen from FIG. 3, terminates at its free front end in an inclined camming surface, the inclined end 111 of the lever 1 being shown in FIG. 3. These inclined ends of the swing levers coact with pattern feet 9 of the needle controlling plates 12 which are supported for movement in the guiding grooves of the needle cylinder 11.

As is apparent from FIG. 2, the pattern feet 9 of the successive control plates 12 are situated at different elevations. In all, there are six different pattern feet positions, and the pattern feet 9 of the successive control plates 12 form, as is apparent from FIG. 2, successive parallel inclined lines each of which includes six of the pattern feet 9 and extends along part of a helix which surrounds the axis of the rotary needle cylinder, this needle cylinder thus forming a needle-carrier means for supporting the control plates 12 for movement. All of the pattern feet have the same width x, and between the pattern feet of a pair of successive control plates there is a predetermined elevational distance y. The control plates 12 can be turned in a known way at the pattern position into the slots 10 at the lower regions of the plates 12 where they are provided with the control feet 13. Normally the control feet 13 are guided by way of the cam 14 to the position 13', shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1, so that in this way the control plates 12 are maintained in their normal position in which the control feet 13 will be engaged by the next-following control cam to be guided along an operating cam path so that the needle connected to the thus-controlled control plate will reach its operating position.

The adjustment of the control plates 12 and thus of their control feet 13 is determined by the swing levers 1-6 of the invention. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the swing levers 1-3, 5 and 6 are in their operating position where their adjusting arms lat-3a, 5a and 6a are at locations where the corresponding pattern feet 9 of the control plates 12 engage the camming ends of these swing levers so that these control plates 12 are pressed at their control feet 13 into the guide slots 10 of the needle cylinder 11. In this way, these control plates 12 will not be engaged by the next-following operating cams, and the needles which are controlled by these control plates will remain in their rest positions and will not participate in the knitting operations. However, the swing lever 4 of FIG. 1 is shown in its rest position. Thus, it will be seen that the adjusting arm 4a with its inclined camming end is situated beneath the elevation of the corresponding pattern foot 9 of the control plate 12 which is to be adjusted by the lever 4, and instead the arm 4a of the lever 4 will be situated at its free inclined end in the intermediate space y between a pair of pattern feet which are respectively situated at diiferent elevations. The control plate 12 which has the pattern foot 9 remains, therefore, in its outwardly swung position so that its projecting control foot 13' will be engaged by the next-following knitting cams, and thus this control plate will shift the needle with which it coacts to the operating position.

As may be seen from FIG. 3, which shows the swing lever 1 in a top plan view, in accordance with the given distribution of the control plates the adjusting arm 1a which is in its operating position will influence at its camming end 1b only every sixth control plate 12, since it is only every sixth control plate which has a pattern foot 9 which moves along a pathin which the camming end 1b of the swing lever 1 is situated. For the sake of clarity of illustration the control plates between those which are controlled by the lever 1 are not illustrated in FIG. 3.

The actuation of the swing levers 1-6 takes place electromagnetically. As is particularly apparent from FIG. 3, in which the swing lever 1 is shown in its entirety, the swing levers are supported for turning movement at their centers of gravity and each of them has an arm directed oppositely to its adjusting arm, these oppositely directed arms 10, 20, 3c of the levers 1-3 being indicated in FIG.

3. These oppositely directed arms act as armatures and are acted upon by the advancing electromagnets 15/1- 15/ 6 and the retracting electromagnets 16/1 and 16/6.

As may be seen from the drawing, the advancing electromagnets 15 are respectively situated beneath the armatures 1c-6c with which they respectively coact, while the retracting electromagnets 16 are arranged above the latter armatures, respectively.

In order to be able to situate the magnets in an extremely small space, the advancing and retracting electromagnets are longitudinally displaced with respect to the armatures with which they coact, and thus FIG. 3 clearly illustrates the electromagnet 15/1 situated beneath and 1ongitudinally displaced along the armature 10 with respect to the electromagnet 16/1 which is situated over the arm 1c at a greater distance from the pivot 7 than the electromagnet 15/ 1. In addition, the electromagnets which are situated in the housing 8 are stacked in three rows, and the armature arms 1c-6c of the successive swing levers are also offset with respect to each other, as is apparent from FIG. 3. In this way all of the electromagnets can be situated in a small space, although their height is greater than the mutual distance between a pair of adjoining swing levers, this latter distance corresponding approximately to the sum of the distances at and y which are respectively equal to the width of a pattern foot and the elevational width of the space between a pair of pattern feet of adjoining control plates 12. The advancing magnets 15 are designed so as to be somewhat stronger than the retracting electromagnets 16 which act on longer lever arms so that they need not have the strength of the electromagnets 15.

As is best seen in FIG. 2, it is possible to distribute in the interior of the pattern housing 8, without any difiiculty, additional magnets for additional swing levers, if more than six swing levers and a correspondingly greater number of different pattern feet positions are desired. Of course, in this case the number of adjusting elements will be greater, but at the same time the distance between control plates whose pattern feet are situated at the same elevation and which are to be controlled by the same swing lever is also increased, so that more space and time are available for actuation of the swing levers each of which is arranged between a pair of pattern feet at the same elevation and connected to control plates which turn with the rotary needle cylinder. The increase in the number of control components is not of too much significance since the swing levers can be very simply manufactured as stamped elements and also the electromagnets which are used can be maintained inexpensive and small, since because of the balanced support for the swing levers only small adjusting forces are required. The increased number of adjusting elements will also provide a greater control tolerance and thus a simpler construction of the unillustrated programming structure, which can lower the cost of the controls to a considerable extent.

In the drawing the pattern device is illustrated in a highly schematic manner. The housing 8 can be made partly of metal and partly of plastic and can to a very large extent be sealed in a dust-tight manner. The individual magnets are screwed onto metal brackets 17, one of which is shown in FIG. 1. y

The several swing levers are arranged directly above one another along a line parallel to the axis of the needle cylinder. In a corresponding manner it is possible to arrange swing levers with vertical turning axes where the needles and control plates are carried and guided by a dial.

The pattern device of the invention is constructed in such a way that a change of the camming or control system and of the arrangement of the control plates of known mechanical Jacquard pattern devices with pin rollers is not required. The electromagnetic pattern device thus can be mounted on already existing circular knitting machines which were initially provided with mechanical pattern devices.

The pattern device of the invention can be changed in a number of different ways. For example, it is possible to provide adjusting elements having inclined front camming ends which are supported for swinging movement in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the control plates. Also, the arms of the swing levers 1-6 can be stepped or angled in such a way that the electromagnets can be arranged at different locations for example one behind the other in a radial direction rather in the circumferential arrangement shown in the drawings.

What is claimed is:

1. In a pattern device for a circular knitting machine, a plurality of needle-controlling plates respectively having pattern feet, rotary needle-carrier means supporting said plates for movement, said needle-carrier means moving said pattern feet of said plates respectively along predetermined paths, and a plurality of electromagnetic selecting means for selecting those plates which are to actuate needles with which they cooperate, each one of said plurality of electromagnetic selecting means respectively including a pivotally mounted movable swing lever having an inclined end and an advancing electromagnet for advancing the swing lever of each electromagnetic selecting means to a position where its inclined end will engage a pattern foot of a plate and a retracting electromagnet acting on said swing lever for retracting the latter to a position where its inclined end will not engage a pattern foot, each one of said swing levers has a pair of arms of approximately the same mass, one of said arms terminating in said inclined end of said swing lever while the other of said arms is magnetically operated, said advancing electromagnets being situated on one side of said other arm for advancing the swing lever to a position where its inclined end will engage a pattern foot of a plate, said retracting electromagnets being situated on the other side of said other arm of said swing lever for retracting the latter to a position where its inclined end is situated beyond the path of movement of a pattern foot so that the latter will not be engaged by said inclined end of said swing lever.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said advancing electromagnet of each electromagnetic means is stronger than said retracting electromagnet thereof.

3. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said inclined ends of said swing-levers are respectively movable in the same general direction as that in which the needles and needle-controlling plates are longitudinally shiftable with respect to said needle-carrier means.

4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said needlecarrier means supports said control plates for longitudinal shifting movement, and the pattern feet of successive control plates being offset with respect to each other in the direction of longitudinal shifting movement of said control plates, and said swing levers of said plurality of electromagnetic means respectively being distributed with respect to each other in said direction of longitudinal shifting movement of said plates with said inclined ends thereof respectively situated in the regions of the paths of movement of said pattern feet so that a given swing lever will coact only with a given pattern foot.

5. The combination of claim 4 and wherein said inclined ends of said swing levers are respectively arranged along a substantially straight line which extends parallel to the turning axis of said needle-carrier means and each of said swing levers having said one of said arms extending in one direction and terminating in said inclined ends, and respectively having said other of said arms extending in an opposed direction.

6. In a pattern device for a circular knitting machine, a rotary needle bed formed with axially extending grooves, a plurality of needle-controlling plates longitudinally .shiftable in said grooves, respectively, and circumferentially distributed about said bed, said plates respectively having pattern feet with a given group of successive plates having their pattern feet axially offset with respect to each other so as to extend along a partial helix which partially extends around the axis of said needle bed, a plurality of swing levers pivotally mounted in a support member and respectively having between their ends turning axes which are parallel to each other and perpendicular to a plane in which lies the longitudinal axis of said circular knitting machine, said swing levers respectively having first control arms extending from their axes toward said needle bed and terminating in inclined ends situated in the path of movement of said pattern feet of each group of plates, respectively, for engaging and camming said pattern feet to shift said plates with respect to said bed to positions where said plates will not participate in the knitting operations, said swing levers respectively having second armature arms extending respectively from their turning axis away from said needle bed and being offset with respect to each other in a direction perpendicular to the axis of said needle bed, and a pair of electromagnets respectively situated at opposite sides of each of said armature arms, one of said electromagnets being an advancing electromagnet for acting on said armature arm to move said inclined end of said control arm of said swing lever to a location where it will engage a predetermined pattern foot, and the other of said electromagnets being a retracting electromagnet for acting on said armature arm to displace the inclined end of the swing lever to a location situation beyond said predetermined pattern foot so that the latter will not be acted upon and will participate in the knitting operations.

7. The combination of claim 6 and wherein said advancing electromagnets are situated closer to said axes than said retracting electromagnets and are stronger than said retracting electromagnets.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,067,877 1/1937 Lawson et al. 66-50 2,269,398 1/1942 Preston 6650 2,348,932 5/ 1944 Scrantom.

3,079,775 3/1963 Schaeder et al.

3,229,482 1/1966 Farmer 66-50 3,262,285 7/1966 Beguin et al.

3,263,453 8/1966 Carrotte et al. 6650 3,283,541 11/1966 De Ceriat 6650 3,290,898 12/1966 Schaeder et al. 66-50 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,432,787 2/ 1966 France.

1,449,339 7/1966 France.

WM. CARTER REYNOLDS, Primary Examiner 

